JOSE A. CARILLO
AS the year 2016 drew to a close, I looked back to see how many columns I’ve already written for The Manila Times since I started writing for its op-ed page in mid-2002. The running total for “English Plain and Simple,” which used to run Mondays to Fridays during the first two years and then weekly thereafter, was 1,023; add to that my “Silent Fire” columns, its Saturday reader-feedback companion piece during those first two years, and the figure goes up to more than 1,125 all told.